Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

A man enters a rural town for a humdrum purpose and everywhere he turns he finds mystery. People answer elliptically. No one is friendly. Puzzling things happen. Objects aren't where they're supposed to be. Records are missing. Why, it's almost as if the villagers were -- covering up some secret! When these things are done right, they can be genuinely effective. "Bad Day at Black Rock" is simple but gripping. "The Wicker Man" is unforgettable -- the original, not the loathsome remake. Even a low-budget TV movie like "Evidence of Blood" can do the job. And no one can finish reading Shirley Jackson's story for the first time without a gasp. She offers no real explanation. As someone said of another short story writer, ""Hemingway walks the reader to the bridge that he or she must cross alone without the narrator's help."The problem is that Jackson's is a short story, and short stories about mysterious and unexplained events can be stellar as long as they remain short. Look at Hemingway's "The Killers" -- nasty, concise, horrifying.But when you turn a short story into a feature-length movie, you have to pad it out, tell the back stories, parse the synecdoches, fill in all the blanks that made the original so enthralling.That's the problem the film makers ran into here. Those back stories and ellipses. "The Lottery" is littered with them. And they're not too interesting either. As the hero, Cortese, is making his escape with Keri Russel towards the end -- long AFTER what SHOULD have been the end -- they have a kind of philosophical exchange in which Russell defends the practices of her small town by counting the vices of the big city that Cortese has come from. It's a stupid brief. It makes as much sense as an argument in favor of the euthanasia of the mentally ill or the unemployed. ("At least we're pruning the herd.") A couple of good character actors appear in this film -- William Daniels, M. Emmet Walsh, Veronica Cartwright. It's beneath their dignity. Salome Gens gives an outstanding performance in her brief appearances.As the puzzled visitor, Dan Cortese is okay. He brings a certain professionalism to the role. He's darkly handsome in a conventional way, and a bit over-muscled. But make up has made a mistake that they didn't make with Keri Russell. Cortese has been given, not an ordinary haircut, but the kind of carefully styled grooming that was popular among West Coast celebrities at the time, a sort of pattern in which the man's hair is swept back into a wavy loaf over his occiput, suggesting the sagittal crest of an extinct reptile. Keri Russell's russet tresses are alternately straight and curled -- and very long. She has the features of a kewpie doll and is quite attractive. How much of an actress she is, is hard to tell from this hollow attempt to make a long film out of a gem of a short story.

I found this movie very boring. Slow on the suspense with maybe a couple of good actors waisted in their roles. Notablly, William Daniels and Salome Jens whom I have always respected in their work. But not even their presence helped this loser. It seems impossible that any town anywhere could get away with what this town does. And why would anyone wish to remain if it did. Chalk it up to stupidity and/or ignorance on their part.The two leads seemed to be walking through the movie. Both Cortese and Russell, looking very attractive, gave a two level performance. Their faces never seemed to change expression throughout the film. They just stare at each other. I guess you blame the director for that. Miss Russell is eye fetching, but not an actress. Mr. Cortese, also eye fetching, is rather one level. He runs good.INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was better. Don't waste your time. 2 stars for Daniels and Jens' courage to make this chestnut.

This is a horrible movie. The dialouge sounds like it was written by Bozo the clown. Whoever made this pathetic adaptation of a famous short story should be ashamed of themselves. Grade: * out of ****

Shirley Jackson was one of the most talented writers of the 20th century and her story "The Lottery" continues to be one of the most discussed short stories in modern literature. You would think that a film (or in this case, a television) adaptation would pay a little more attention to detail and try to remain at least a little loyal to the original story. Instead, we get this. The only similarity between this and the story is the fact that someone is stoned to death. Beyond that, it seems as though the screenwriters never even glanced at the short story while writing this. Even when looked at on its own, paying no attention to the story, this movie is bad. It is over-the-top and insulting to the viewer. The context and setting are all wrong, making the plot completely unbelievable. As for the acting, I don't think it's fair to call what is portrayed in the movie "acting". Do yourself a favor and read the story. With this and the recent second film adaptation of her novel "The Haunting Of Hill House", the memory of Shirley Jackson does not deserve to be degraded any further.